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Barriers to sleep in acute hospital settings

  • Psychiatrics • Original Article
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Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to examine the environmental and operational factors that disrupt sleep in the acute, non-ICU hospital setting.

Design, setting and participants

This was a prospective study of adult patients admitted to an acute tertiary hospital ward (shared versus single room) and sleep laboratory (single room conducive to sleep).

Main outcome measures

This study measured ambient light (lux) and sound (dB), number of operational interruptions, and questionnaires assessing sleep and mental health.

Results

Sixty patients were enrolled, 20 in a double bedroom located close to the nursing station (‘shared ward’), 20 in a single bedroom located distant to the nursing station (‘single ward’) and 20 attending the sleep laboratory for overnight polysomnography (‘sleep laboratory’). Sleep was disturbed in 45% of patients in the shared and single ward groups (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index > 5). Light levels were appropriately low across all 3 locations. Sound levels (significant effect of room F(1.38) = 6.452, p = 0.015) and operational interruptions (shared ward 5.6 ± 2.5, single ward 6.2 ± 2.9, sleep laboratory 2.7 ± 2.1 per night, p < 0.05 wards compared to sleep laboratory) were higher in the shared and single ward group compared to the sleep laboratory but not compared to each other. Noise was rated as the greatest environmental disturbance by 70% of ward patients compared to 10% in the sleep laboratory.

Conclusion

Higher noise levels and frequent operational interruptions are potential barriers to sleep and recovery on an acute medical ward which are not ameliorated by being in a single bedroom located distant to the nursing station

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Funding

This study was funded by the Eastern Health Foundation (EHFRD-15–00035).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, Eastern Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Chuan T. Foo, Denise M. O’Driscoll & Alan C. Young

  2. Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Denise M. O’Driscoll & Alan C. Young

  3. Monash Addiction Research Centre, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Rowan P. Ogeil & Dan Lubman

  4. Turning Point, Eastern Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Rowan P. Ogeil & Dan Lubman

  5. Department of Respiratory & Sleep Medicine, Box Hill Hospital, Eastern Health and Monash University, Box Hill, VIC, 3128, Australia

    Alan C. Young

Authors
  1. Chuan T. Foo
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  2. Denise M. O’Driscoll
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  3. Rowan P. Ogeil
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  4. Dan Lubman
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  5. Alan C. Young
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Contributions

Conceptualisation: Dan Lubman, Alan C Young, Rowan P Ogeil and Denise M O’Driscoll. Data curation: Chuan T Foo. Formal analysis: Chuan T Foo, Rowan P Ogeil and Denise M O’Driscoll. Writing —original draft: Chuan T Foo. Writing — review and editing: Chuan T Foo, Denise M O'Driscoll, Rowan P Ogeil, Dan Lubman and Alan C Young.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alan C. Young.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Eastern Health Human Research Ethics Committee (E20-2016).

Consent to participate

Written informed consent was obtained from all participants in this study.

Conflict of interest

Dan Lubman has provided consultancy advice to Lundbeck and Indivior and has received travel support and speaker honoraria from AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Indivior, Janssen, Lundbeck, Shire and Servier.

Rowan Ogeil was supported by a Peter Doherty Fellowship from the NHMRC (Australia), GNT1071725.

Chuan T Foo, Denise M O'Driscoll and Alan C Young have no relevant financial or non-financial interest to disclose.

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Foo, C.T., O’Driscoll, D.M., Ogeil, R.P. et al. Barriers to sleep in acute hospital settings. Sleep Breath 26, 855–863 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-021-02415-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-021-02415-y

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